Yellow Submarinehttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/
2:5030/359 Roman Shaposhniken-usCopyright 2013Sat, 29 Jun 2013 22:28:10 +0000Apache Roller BLOGS401ORA6 (20130904125427)https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/how_to_get_the_mostHow to get the most out of your CPU with Sun Studio 12rvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/how_to_get_the_most
Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:51:21 +0000Sun StudioThere used to be a time when hardware (especially CPUs) had a much longer release cycle
compared to software. Not anymore. The silicon industry has joined the "frenetic squirrel"
squad and cranks up updates of architectures at a pretty alarming pace. Of course, for C, C++
and Fortran developers it means only one thing -- your compilers have to stay ahead of the
game, otherwise you might as well program that shiny new CPU in an assembly language.
<br><br>
The good news for Sun Studio 12 users is that the only thing that separates you
from the kick ass performance on the latest contraptions from AMD and Intel is
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio/downloads/patches/ss12_patches.jsp">this set of patches</a>.
So, if you are planning to deploy on Intel's Woodcrest and Clovertown or AMD's Barcelona chips,
just download the patches, install them and don't forget to tell the compiler what you want:
<ol>
<li>if your development and deployment boxes are the same:<code>-xtarget=native</code>
<li>same as above, but forcing 64bit code generation:<code>-xtarget=native64</code>
<li>if your target is Intel's Woodcrest and Clovertown in 32bit mode:<code>-xtarget=woodcrest -m32</code>
<li>if your target is Intel's Woodcrest and Clovertown in 64bit mode:<code>-xtarget=woodcrest -m64</code>
<li>if your target is AMD's Barcelona in 32bit mode:<code>-xtarget=barcelona -m32</code>
<li>if your target is AMD's Barcelona in 64bit mode:<code>-xtarget=barcelona -m64</code>
</ol>
https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/sun_studio_for_linux_onSun Studio for Linux on the eve of Oscarsrvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/sun_studio_for_linux_on
Wed, 13 Feb 2008 10:51:01 +0000Sun StudioIt is no secret (in fact, at this point I probably bored everyone to death with this) that Sun Studio for Linux
was a very personal project for me. For a movie freak, this was the closest experience to subverting
a major studio into making an independent movie. Of course, seeing Sun Studio
<a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1006101">nominated by Linux Journal</a> for a "favorite Linux software
development tool" seems like the closest I can ever get to being part of Oscars. Unlike Oscars, though,
there's no Academy Members who vote, it is you. And since today is the last day for casting your vote
my pledge is very simple -- if you like Sun Studio on Linux, don't be shy to scroll to the question #22, if
you don't like Sun Studio on Linux don't be shy to shoot me an email and above all if you haven't even
tried <a href="http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio/downloads/thankyou.jsp?submit=%A0FREE+Download%A0%BB%A0">Sun Studio on Linux</a> now would be the best time.
https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/sun_studio_and_sxde_liveSun Studio and SXDE Live Chatrvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/sun_studio_and_sxde_live
Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:21:08 +0000Sun StudioI would like to invite all of the developers out there to join a bunch of my colleagues and myself in the Live Chat event
that we're putting together to discuss anything that is related to the software development on Solaris. We would be
answering your questions on
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/sxde">Solaris Express Developer Edition</a>,
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio">Sun Studio</a>, <a href="http://www.sun.com/hpc">HPC</a> and talking about
all things related to the development process starting from how come we still have /usr/sfw/bin all the way
to whether or not iPod support is part of the proper developer's desktop. The event will run from 24th of July all the way
to 27th of July every day from 9am-11am PST. All you have to do is just click on the
<a href="http://www1.avivocom.com/sun/banner.html">Live Chat link</a> and you should be good to go. The whole thing looks
strikingly similar to a "public" IM and is quite simple to use.
<br><br>
<b>P.S.</b> Come on! Bring your embarrassing questions with you, 'cause you know what -- quoting snippets of this upcoming live chat
might just be the best way to convince PHBs around here. After all you <b>are</b> the customers and you know what that means.https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/git_yet_another_scm_systemGit: yet another SCM system or a revolutionary model of software development?rvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/git_yet_another_scm_system
Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:16:05 +0000Sun StudioI have recently come across the video recording of Linus Torvalds himself arguing
a case for <a href="http://git.or.cz/">Git</a> as the ultimate source code
management system. The presentation is done in the usual trademark Linus style
(which I happen to like immensely since it seems to be the only way to wake up
the audience sufficiently enough to be engaged in a conversation) but the issues
he tackles are very poignant and go far beyond the merits of a particular SCM
system into a realm of what is the best tool for automating highly decentralized
peer-reviewed software development model:
<ol>
<li>Distributed vs. centralized development. <br>Bottom line: centralized SCMs
run against the proverbial Bazaar.</li>
<li>Using networks of trust as the key means of conquering complexity of the
modern software projects and dealing with compartmentalization of
key developers/experts. <br>Bottom line: SCM should reflect how humans are wired.</li>
<li>How to keep the pace of development activity at the highest possible level
(by making it cheap and easy to experiment and not care about breaking other stuff)
yet allow the easiest transition path for the changes that seem to be
beneficial for the project. <br>Bottom line: branch early, branch often.</li>
<li>Developers vs. gate keepers and why the problems they face are
fundamentally different. <br>Bottom line: even the best branching is useless without
merging</li>
</ol>
I find his arguments about why CVS is the most braindead SCM ever invented and
why Subversion simply denies itself the right to exist by proclaiming that they
are the CVS done right quite convincing. Especially so when they are coming from
a guy who has a project of ~22000 files to maintain and does about 25 merges
per day. His main pain points with CVS/Subversion hit very close to home:
<ol>
<li>There is no data coherency model to write home about. Which might not
be a problem for most projects but certainly is for something as security
sensitive as an OS kernel. Basically with CVS (and I think even Subversion)
the only way you know that your data got corrupted is when its too late.
<li>Branching is waaay too painful because of things like global
namespace for branches (read: constant collisions and things like
test_12345 branches), all branches being pushed down every developer's throat, etc.
<li>Subversion patches certain things as far as branches go, but fails miserably
as far as merging is concerned.
<li>The tools you use are supposed to make you more productive. Period.
</ol>
Now, I must admit that as much as he was successful at positioning Git to look as the
best tool for the job I am still not convinced on two accounts:
<ol>
<li>Does git really offer a nice way of structuring complex projects like KDE and such?
His suggestion of Super projects (workspaced with pointers to individual
Git repositories) might be an interesting one, but it certainly requires
some practice and experience to be evaluated properly.
[2008 Update: It seems that this is no longer an issue. Git got the infrastructure
for supporting Submodules and from <a href="http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitSubmoduleTutorial">
what it documented on their TWiki</a> looks like they got it right]
<li>Is the approach Git takes with making it easier to work with projects as
a whole at an expense of treating projects as collection of files the right one?
See the problem is -- I'm much more of a lone developer
than a gatekeeper. So Git might be optimizing for the role I rarely
find myself in (and Linus finds all the time)
</ol>
But regardless of these concerns I highly recommend you watch the presentation
yourself -- it is well worth it. Just keep in mind one thing: just before
the BitKeeper (something Linus seems to have very fond memories of)
Lary used to develop this little project called
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeamWare">TeamWare</a> here at Sun.
What was TeamWare? Well it was "a distributed source code revision control system...
which BitKeeper seems to share a number of design concepts with".
<br>
<center><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4XpnKHJAok8"></param><param name="wmode" value="transpare
nt"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4XpnKHJAok8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></center>
https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/a_sandbox_for_playing_withA sandbox for playing with the coolest CPU around.rvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/a_sandbox_for_playing_with
Fri, 15 Jun 2007 18:18:34 +0000Sun StudioFor quite sometime now I've been giving these presentations
on how the layman's understanding of the Moore's Law is dead
and how the world is embracing the multicore (CMT) model.
The usual question I get whenever I convince people that this is,
in fact, the case seems to be: "But how can I jumpstart my
foray into this magical world of parallel computing?" My usual
answer to that has been: get your hands on the only 8 core
CPU available today in the market --
<a href="http://www.sun.com/processors/UltraSPARC-T1/">UltraSPARC T1</a>
by applying for the
<a href="https://www.sun.com/tryandbuy/products.jsp">Try'n'Buy program</a>.
<br><br>
Well, now I've got an even better answer for all of the OpenSource developers
out there: you can ssh into one of these things: ssh.sundemo.ru!
<br><br>
That's right. Apply for the account on the
<a href="http://www.sundemo.ru/register/servlet">Sun Studio Demo Server</a>
and hack away!
<br><br>
P.S. Even thought the form is in Russian, here's what the individual
fields mean:
<ol>
<li>First name
<li>Last name
<li>E-Mail
<li>Address
<li>Phone
</ol>
The last one is a pretty generic EULA check box.
<br><br>https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/roboinvasion_linuxtag_2007Roboinvasion @LinuxTAG 2007rvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/roboinvasion_linuxtag_2007
Sun, 10 Jun 2007 21:04:17 +0000Sun StudioEver since
<a href="http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5072293&tstart=240">
Sun Studio compilers and tools started to support
Linux</a> we've been present at various Linux shows and LinuxTAG
in Germany has always ranked pretty high on the list. This year,
however, we had a very special reason to make it to LinuxTAG: it
just so happened that the release date for
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio">Sun Studio 12</a> (our first
release ever to officially support Linux at the
same level Solaris has always been supported) coincided perfectly
with the
<a href="http://www.linuxtag.org/2007/en">LinuxTAG 2007 in Berlin</a>.
Add to it the fact that
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/solaris/downloads/solexpdev/">
Solaris Express Developer Edition 6/07</a> was supposed to
have its release around the same timeframe and it doesn't take a
genius to figure out that we had to do something extraordinary
for all those hardworking C, C++ and Fortran developers out there.
The <i>real</i> developers. We had a couple of ideas like having
a contest similar to the
<a href="http://code.google.com/soc/">Google's Summer of Code</a>
or just bringing a couple of kegs of beer on site but they all
either were too heavyweight to pull off in just a couple of weeks
or downright illegal. Finally we've asked ourselves a very basic
question: since we all <i>are</i>, in fact developers, what would we,
personally, get excited about? I hate to say it but it turned out
that the BSD community had beaten us to a punch with the idea
that was unanimously deemed to be the
<a href="http://www.fozzilinymoo.org/events/2001-LWCE-NY/images/0131/bsd-devilettes.jpg">
most exciting one</a>, so we had to opt out for programmable robots.
After all, it is much easier to control a robot, you know.
<br><br>
And that's how controlling a
<a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">LEGO Mindstorm NXT</a> robot
using Solaris Express Developer Edition and Sun Studio has
become THE whole point of the contest:
<br><br>
<center><img src="http://blogs.sun.com/rvs/resource/RobotContestPoster.png"/></center>
<br>
Here's a funny bit of trivia...Ever since
<a href="http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5072293&tstart=240">
Sun Studio compilers and tools started to support
Linux</a> we've been present at various Linux shows and LinuxTAG
in Germany has always ranked pretty high on the list. This year,
however, we had a very special reason to make it to LinuxTAG: it
just so happened that the release date for
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio">Sun Studio 12</a> (our first
release ever to officially support Linux at the
same level Solaris has always been supported) coincided perfectly
with the
<a href="http://www.linuxtag.org/2007/en">LinuxTAG 2007 in Berlin</a>.
Add to it the fact that
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/solaris/downloads/solexpdev/">
Solaris Express Developer Edition 6/07</a> was supposed to
have its release around the same timeframe and it doesn't take a
genius to figure out that we had to do something extraordinary
for all those hardworking C, C++ and Fortran developers out there.
The <i>real</i> developers. We had a couple of ideas like having
a contest similar to the
<a href="http://code.google.com/soc/">Google's Summer of Code</a>
or just bringing a couple of kegs of beer on site but they all
either were too heavyweight to pull off in just a couple of weeks
or downright illegal. Finally we've asked ourselves a very basic
question: since we all <i>are</i>, in fact developers, what would we,
personally, get excited about? I hate to say it but it turned out
that the BSD community had beaten us to a punch with the idea
that was unanimously deemed to be the
<a href="http://www.fozzilinymoo.org/events/2001-LWCE-NY/images/0131/bsd-devilettes.jpg">
most exciting one</a>, so we had to opt out for programmable robots.
After all, it is much easier to control a robot, you know.
<br><br>
And that's how controlling a
<a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">LEGO Mindstorm NXT</a> robot
using Solaris Express Developer Edition and Sun Studio has
become THE whole point of the contest:
<br><br>
<center><img src="https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/resource/RobotContestPoster.png"/></center>
<br>
Here's a funny bit of trivia about the poster we've made: it turns
out that there's an established conference in Germany called
<a href="http://www.wizards-of-os.org/index.php?id=36&L=3">Wizard of OS</a>.
We honestly didn't know that. So you could imagine our surprise
when an angry dude (somehow associated with it) showed up and demanded
that we take our posters down. Now in my book that's irony at its
best: after all, most of the OpenSource folks feel pretty strongly
about things like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use">
fair use</a> yet when it comes to somebody fair using
their stuff some of them get stiff and proper and reach for their
phone to call a lawyer or two. We told the dude to beat it, but
somehow the net result of it all was that the organizers of the
expo had to take down one of the posters located right at the
entrance to the show.
<br><br>
Now, as I mentioned the rules of the contest were pretty simple:
the first one to make the <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/Overview/MTR_AlphaRex.aspx">
Alpha Rex</a> robot move wins it. Of course, the fact that the
robot is sold not as a robot per se, but as a box full of LEGO
pieces (Mindstorm NXT kit) made our evening right before the
conference an exiting one to say the least. Personally I was using
jetlag as a reason to dodge <i>real</i> engineering work, but
my comrades can now rightfully add "LEGO builder" to their resumes...
<center><img src="https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/resource/BuildingRobot.jpg"/></center>
<br>
...or may be not, because you see, on the opening day of the conference
we proudly brought our robot to the booth only to discover that we
forgot to insert the batteries. Of course inserting them meant
reassembling the whole thing. Nice!
<br><br>
Right from the first day the very presence of a robot in our
booth created a steady stream of curious folks who wanted to know
what was it all about. We didn't, however, have any serious contenders
for the prize until
<a href="http://people.fruitsalad.org/adridg/">Adriaan de Groot</a>
showed up and asked us to install Solaris on his laptop so as to
satisfy the big rule #1 of the contest
<center><img src="https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/resource/AdriaanDeGroot.jpg"/></center>
<br>
He hacked around the robot a bit but then told us that more Googling
and reverseenginering of the protocol seemed to be needed and went
home.
<br>
<br>
Next morning a couple of guys came by and asked us about
the robot and our contest. They even got Solaris installed on
their laptops but just as Adriaan they seemed to need more
time for Googling. They were almost ready to call it a day,
when the most amazing thing happened -- Adriaan dropped
by, connected his laptop to the robot and made him squeal!
That was, of course, just enough of a reason to made Arne and Sebastian
unpack their bags and enter into a coding race for the amazing
squealing Robot
<center><img src="https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/resource/Arne.jpg"/></center>
<br>
And what a race it was! These two teams were basically hacking in
real time passing a USB cable connected to a robot back an forth
and generating quite a crowd in our booth as a byproduct. They
also were, I must say, extremely gentle and fair to each other.
And even though in every contest, like in life, there's only
one winner I felt pretty sad that we didn't have two Mindstorm
LEGO sets to give away. But I digressed. They were going head-to-head
for 5 hours. Basically reverse engineering the protocol and experimenting
with it all from within Solaris and Sun Studio
<center><img src="https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/resource/SunStudioRobot.jpg"/></center>
(to which one passerby remarked: Hmmm... this Sun Studio thing looks like
a decent IDE I didn't expect to see that). But it all came down to a climactic
stand off when they both had it almost working but Arne and Sebastian were
quicker to hack their way through by broadcasting to all the motors at once:
<br>
<center>
<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_7irYy0GKY4"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_7irYy0GKY4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
</center>
<br>
Now that was a fun moment to witness!
<br><br>
It was also quite fun to analyze their code later on and see how different
styles of programming can be either helpful or hurtful under certain
circumstances. Don't believe me just yet? Well, see for yourself:
<table width="100%" border="1">
<tr><td><center>
<a href="http://blogs.sun.com/rvs/resource/RobotUSB1.c">Adriaan's code</a>
</center></td> <td><center>
<a href="http://blogs.sun.com/rvs/resource/RobotUSB2.c">Arne and Sebastian's code</a>
</center></td></tr>
</table>
And not just see, but feel free to improve on the original code so that
one day we can have a compelling Mindstorm NXT programming environment
for Solaris OS!
<br><br>
What more is there to tell? Well, of course, we had an award
ceremony for Arne and Sebastian on the last day
<center><img src="https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/resource/ArneWin.jpg"/></center>
<br>
and they seemed to be really happy. Adriaan, who by the way turned
out to be one of the most delightful people I met at
LinuxTAG, seemed to be happy for them as well and not
one bit sour (he now has an account of all of this written in
<a href="http://people.fruitsalad.org/adridg/bobulate/index.php?/archives/425-Switch-to-Solaris-at-LinuxTag.html">
his own blog</a>). As for me, I'm now trying to figure out
what else can we do to make C, C++ and hey! even Fortran
development with Sun Studio more fun. Perhaps one of these
days we can have an event similar to the always impressive
<a href="http://www.linuxtag.org/2007/en/community/hackingcontest.html">Hacking Contest</a> at LinuxTAG.
Of course, ours would be in English and more developer than systems
oriented. And, by the way, if you happen to have any ideas on
how to run the cool contest for developers -- please let me know.
That's what blogs have comments sections for, right?
https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/what_do_sun_studio_12What do Sun Studio 12, Project D-Light and SXDE have in common.rvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/what_do_sun_studio_12
Tue, 5 Jun 2007 11:59:04 +0000Sun StudioToday feels good. In fact today feels exactly like the day after the
finals when I can finally stop running like a chicken with its head
cut off and focus on import stuff (like writing this very blog entry
for example ;-)). Because you see, today is the day when two
of the projects I consider to be my personal ones have reached
important milestones:
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio/downloads/">Sun Studio 12 is now
officially released</a> as a full fledged fully supported suite
of compilers and tools for Solaris and Linux. And at the same time
<a href="http://sun.feedroom.com/linking/?skin=twoclip&fr_story=FEEDROOM192569">Project D-Light</a>
has made its first public appearance as part of the
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio/downloads/express.jsp">Sun Studio Express - June 2007 Build</a>.
As I said, these two are very personal (which is not to say that I was the only one who worked
on them) yet very different projects. The first one (Sun Studio 12 compilers
on Linux) started out as a true skunk works and by the time we got any public
exposure we actually had a pretty decent implementation already so the only
logical question to ask was: when should we ship it? Project D-Light on the
other hand got exposed right after the idea for it ripped through the management
chain <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0078748/">Alien-style</a> at the time where we didn't
really have much functionality to write home about. So what do these two projects
and <a href="http://developers.sun.com/solaris/downloads/solexpdev/">Solaris Express Developer Edition</a>
(which is supposed to have its next release available any minute now) have in common?
The answer is quite simple -- you. Yes -- YOU, our users, early adopters and
loyal customers. Without your support nothing of what makes me proud today would
have been possible. Not Sun Studio 12, nor Project D-Light. I wish to thank you
and once again ask for the only thing that matters: your feedback. Sun Studio 12
and compilers for Linux ended up a success in large because you clearly showed your interest
at our <a href="http://forum.java.sun.com/forum.jspa?forumID=855">Sun Studio for Linux Forum</a>.
I truly hope that Project D-Light has a chance of following that road to success.
The <a href="http://forum.java.sun.com/forum.jspa?forumID=852">Sun Studio Tools Forum</a>
awaits!
<br><br>
P.S. As for Solaris Express Developer Edition I keep entertaining the idea of
hijacking it and turning into my third personal project. Although it feels
like I might be biting off way more than I can chew ;-)
https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/dtrace_probes_assert_on_steroidsDTrace probes -- assert() on steroids?rvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/dtrace_probes_assert_on_steroids
Sun, 29 Apr 2007 12:24:46 +0000Sun StudioQuite recently I've had a conversation with a good friend of mine
who shares my interest in DTrace and compilers and it seems that
we've come up with a pretty neat use for DTrace probes. The idea
is to start using DTrace probes for assert(3). You know how,
during the development cycle the assertions are kept in the code
and when the final build is supposed to happen most of them get
deleted by turning off a magic define? Well, with DTrace probes
used instead of assert() the beauty is -- they are all turned
off by default (no funky defines required) but the dynamic nature
of DTrace lets you turn any subset of them on when and only
when you really need them. Like at a customer site (with the
production code running) to diagnose a particular problem. Neat,
isn't it?
https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/interested_in_what_s_upInterested in what's up with Sun Studio?rvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/interested_in_what_s_up
Fri, 30 Mar 2007 23:09:10 +0000Sun Studio<iframe src="http://sunfeedroom.sun.com/linking/index.jsp?skin=oneclip&fr_story=FEEDROOM186071&rf=ev&hl=true" width="322" height="278" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" ></iframe>
<p>
Kuldip has the latest scoop! And for even more details make sure to login <br><a href="http://blogs.sun.com/SDNChannel/entry/sun_studio_and_gnome">
SDN Channel</a>
https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/a_bit_of_c_codeA bit of C code that costs $200 per line.rvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/a_bit_of_c_code
Wed, 21 Mar 2007 13:51:50 +0000Sun StudioIf you're the type of a person who played
a fair share of arcade games in the past
AND at least once the code you wrote
drove your coworkers to the brink of insanity
you should get a kick out of the thingy
a bunch of us here at Sun put together
just to show how much fun Sun Studio and
Solaris can be. So there's fun, fame
and $5000 fortune for anybody who dares
to enter
<center>
<br>
<a href="http://www.sun.com/templeofthesun3">Temple of the Sun!</a>
</center>
<br>
<center>
<a href="http://www.sun.com/templeofthesun3"><img src="https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/resource/temple.png"></a>
</center>https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/the_landscape_of_parallel_computingThe Landscape of Parallel Computing Research: A View From Berkeleyrvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/the_landscape_of_parallel_computing
Mon, 8 Jan 2007 18:59:21 +0000Sun StudioAs a somebody who believe in parallelism as the only way out of our dependency
on Moore's Law I was very pleased to discover this
<a href="http://view.eecs.berkeley.edu/wiki/Main_Page">Wiki</a>
put together by
Berkeley research team. Now that I have this URL I don't have to
keep maintaining my collection of links on <a href"http://del.icio.us">del.icio.us</a> ;-)https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/how_to_become_a_compilerHow to become a compiler wizard in 1 hourrvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/how_to_become_a_compiler
Mon, 2 Oct 2006 16:36:38 +0000Sun StudioYou know how when you work in a particular field long enough you slowly become
a resident guru or a go-to guy at which point you promise to yourself that
one of those days you would definitely write an FAQ if only not to repeat
the same thing over and over again ? You never do, of course.
<br><br>
Well, all of the procrastinating gurus in the compiler field can rejoice
since from now on all it takes to enlighten your trustworthy apprentices
is to point them at the introductory article written by Abdulaziz Ghuloum
<a href="http://scheme2006.cs.uchicago.edu/11-ghuloum.pdf">An Incremental Approach to Compiler Construction</a>
so that you can happily get back to playing Nethack.
<br><br>
But just in case -- keep your <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Compiler-Implementation-Steven-Muchnick/dp/1558603204/sr=1-1/qid=1159832121/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-8331302-3259964?ie=UTF8&s=books">Muchnik</a> handy for those who might come back ;-)
<br><br>
Many thanks to Horsh for sharing this URL with me.
https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/a_tale_of_three_conferencesA tale of three conferencesrvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/a_tale_of_three_conferences
Tue, 12 Sep 2006 10:32:11 +0000Sun StudioPerhaps some of you have noticed that I haven't blogged much lately (well,
I certainly hope you have -- otherwise what's the point of me
blogging in the first place ;-)). The reason of course is that I've
been quite busy lately going to various software conferences talking
about
<a href="http://blogs.sun.com/rvs/resource/CMT.pdf">
MultiCore revolution</a>
and how Software Tools such as compilers
play a key role in it. So far I've been at 3 conferences:
<a href="http://www.cluecon.com">ClueCon in Chicago</a>,
<a href="http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/live/12/events/12SFO06A/conference/tracksessions/Kernel%20and%20System%20Development/QMONYA04RVI3">
LinuxWorld in San Francisco<a> and
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/events/techdays/2006/US_SEA.jsp">Sun TechDAYs in Seattle</a>
and every single one of them proved to be quite interesting and
exciting in its own right. ClueCon, for example completely shattered
my concerns about being a VoIP conference (and mind you, I don't
really have any expertise in that domain) and in fact happened
to be one the most welcoming and feel-right-at-home software conferences
I've ever been to. I believe that if there's anybody to be
thanked for making ClueCon the way it was it would be Tony Minnesale .
The brain (and soul!) behind a <a href="http://www.freeswitch.org">FreeSWITCH Project</a>.
I can only hope that ClueCon atendees felt as good about my presentation
as I felt about being there, but since at least one guy said
to me: "Wow! Good thing we didn't leave -- we thought it would
be just another Java zealot from Sun talking about irrelevant
stuff but you actually gave us a bunch of good ideas on how
to make our telco apps faster on AMD64 and Niagara boxes.
That's useful" I think it went ok.
<br><br>
LinuxWorld, of course, was bigger louder and much more commercial.
Comparing it to ClueCon is sort of like comapring a nice
boutique to Macy's ;-) However, the fact that I met Ron Peacetree
and spent a day with Josh Abraham and the "maddog" definitely made it a very
memorable experience. My only concern is that I somehow misplaced
a business card that a very nice guy from O'Reilly booth gave to
me and I really want to thank him for his gift and follow up
on his proposal. So if anyone who reads this happens to know
who was staffing the O'Reilly booth there -- please drop me a note.
<br><br>
Now Seattle was all about sunny and warm weather and an opportunity
to talk directly to our customers -- both things which I personally
appreciate very much.
<br><br>
As for the presentation I've made -- since several folks have expressed
their interest in getting a .PDF copy of it -- here it is:
<a href="http://blogs.sun.com/rvs/resource/CMT.pdf">Unleashing the Power of Chip multi-threading with software tools</a>. Enjoy!
https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/linux_technology_preview_is_deadLinux Technology preview is dead! Long live the Sun Studio Express!rvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/linux_technology_preview_is_dead
Mon, 14 Aug 2006 13:45:48 +0000Sun StudioToday is the first day of the
<a href="http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/live/12/events/12SFO06A">LinuxWorld in San Francisco</a>
(and actually
I'm writing this waiting for a speaker to arrive and give us
a lecture on what's new in the field of buffer overflow exploits
and related fields of fine hacking ;-)) which is quite exciting
especially if you take into account that it'll be my first
LinuxWorld where I participate as a
<a href="http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/live/12/events/12SFO06A/conference/bio//CMONYA00BGQC">speaker</a>
, giving a presentation
on
<a href="http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/live/12/events/12SFO06A/conference/tracksessions/Kernel%20and%20System%20Development/QMONYA04RVI3">'Unleashing the Power of Chip multi-threading with software tools'</a>.
On top of which our our team has just released
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/cc/downloads/express.jsp">Sun Studio Express 2</a>,
which signifies the end of the Linux Technology Preview phase
and makes Linux just another platform Sun Studio supports. We should
all be grateful to the Sun Studio Linux Technology Preview Program
since it actually made it possible to break the physiological ice
and create the real deal -- Sun Studio Express. Which is
basically our way of making the development as transparent to
you as possible. It is also your opportunity to tell us what's
wrong with our software before its too late for us to fix.<br><br>
Anyway -- it is a great time to
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/cc/downloads/express.jsp">subscribe to Sun Studio Express</a>,
start using it on regular occasion and
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/cc/community/index.jsp">give us your feedback</a>.
<br><br>
As I said -- this particular one is totally focused on Linux
and comes with the
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/cc/downloads/express_readme.html">boatload of features and bug fixes</a> so that
even the pickiest ones shouldn't be disappointed ;-) And we've
got Solaris developers covered as well! Its all
there. Sun Studio Express gives you exact same bits we use
internally.
For those of you in close proximity to San Francisco it is also
a great time to drop by our booth in Moscone Center (we're
actually located in the AMD's pavilion -- so don't be fooled)
talk to us and for the really curious ones may be even
attend my presentation on Wed 08/16/2006, 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM.
Hope to see you there!https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/sdn_channel_on_linux_deleted1SDN Channel on Linux: deleted unrated scenesrvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/sdn_channel_on_linux_deleted1
Sat, 29 Jul 2006 22:32:10 +0000Sun StudioAs you might have noticed in my previous
<a href="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/rvs?entry=sdn_channel_on_linux_deleted">blog entry</a>
I really wanted to get your opinion on
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/channel/07_06/">my interview</a>.
But aside from the usual curiosity I had a practical reason to
beg for it to be reflected in the comments section of my blog.
Because you see, the other part I had to do for
the Linux episode of the <a href="http://developers.sun.com/channel">
SDN Channel</a> resulted in the most bizarre and troubling
interaction I have ever had while working for Sun.<br><br>
And that other part I am talking about is making of
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/cc/product_tour.jsp">flash demos</a>.<br><br>
As a producer of these demos I really wanted them to do
one thing -- transport every viewer into the office(s)
of the guys who actually wrote the software in question
(one way or the other). I wanted them to be as geeky and
as similar to the usual hallway conversations we all have as possible.
One thing I didn't want them to be was flashy and marketing
looking. I'm a developer myself and I consider it to be
a bait'n'switch when somebody is trying to feed me a marketing
presentation calling it a developer demo.<br><br>
Two demos were produced under these assumptions
and they were shown to a bunch of colleagues of
ours. Both native and non-native English speakers.
The response we got was almost unanimous -- audio
might use some fixin' but otherwise they are nice.
The coast was clear and the demos were on their
way to <a href="http://developers.sun.com">http://developers.sun.com</a> when all of a
sudden we had a really strong pushback from
a new person responsible for ok'ing everything that
goes on our site. What that person demanded
was a total removal of \*both\* demos (which
wasn't half as bad as the actual reason given
to us). Now, don't get me wrong here I would
be the first one to agree that the technical
merits of these demos are probably not quite
at the level where I would feel comfortable
submitting them for an Oscan nomination. That
I was prepared to hear and discuss. But I was
completely unprepared for an actual reason
that was given to me: I was told that the
<b>only</b> reason they wouldn't be published
is because having demos narrated by
non-native English speakers or even by
somebody who doesn't happen to be a professional
voice talent is below the quality bar that
is acceptable for a successful image of
Sun microsystems.<br><br>
Just like that<br><br>
I tried to argue my case. First by trying to
convince my opponent that it is always better
to hear an unscripted developer chatting about
things which are near and dear to him than
to have a voice talent doing a lip syncing job.
I even referred to the governor of the state
of California elected to his position regardless
of the thickest middle-European accent since
Kissinger. All to no avail. I think somewhere
along the way it actually got personal (after
all when it comes to accents I'm as touchy
as the next [Slavic] guy)<br><br>
At that point I stopped arguing and figured that as long
as one of the demos did survive and as long as
<a href="http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan">Jonathan</a>
has a soft spot in his heart for <a href="http://blogs.sun.com">http://blogs.sun.com</a> I
can safely use this place instead of the official
one (<a href="http://developers.sun.com">http://developers.sun.com</a>) to talk
to the sort of guys and gals I want to talk to -- you.<br><br>
And so without further ado, here's a portion of the SDN portal
which you were not supposed to see. And as with my previous
plea I hope that you would find it possible to spend a couple
of minutes adding a comment or two on what you saw and heard.
I can not stress enough how important it is for me to
find out whether all of the allegations made against this
demo (and even the first one!) are true or false. And who's
the better force to set this record straight than you --
viewers and listeners we created this demo for. Just
keep in mind one thing -- I don't want to assert that quality
of the audio here is good enough for a broadcast
all I'm trying to say is that it is comprehensible.
Should we do better next time? Absolutely! Was
it necessary to remove this demo ? NO! <br>
<hr>
<B>Sun Studio Next Generation IDE Tour</B><br>
<table><tr>
<td>
<a href="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/rvs/IDEdemo0806.html">
<img src=http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/rvs/painter.jpg></a></td>
<td><b>Watch the Sun Studio Next Generation IDE Tour</b><br>
See what kind of the IDE experience you should be preparing
yourself for once we made it available for early adopters
some time later this year. This demo was created by (in alphabetical
order): Andrew Krasny, Maria Tishkova, Anton Vysotsky and
Anton Youdkevitch. Editing and postproduction -- Roman Shaposhnik.
The team would like to
thank <a href="http://photos.sun.com/asset/5627?returnPage=/page/988">
Anya Barsky</a> for feedback and support and <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan">Jonathan Schwartz</a>
for being a Patron Saint of <a href="http://blogs.sun.com">http://blogs.sun.com</a>.<br><br>
&raquo;<a href="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/rvs/IDEdemo0806.html">
Take the IDE tour (flash)</a>
</td>
</tr></table>
<hr>
P.S. And especially if you happen to be a non-native English speaker
please let me know whether you had major difficulties understanding
the demo. One of the allegations against it was exactly that it would
be practically impossible for non-native speakers to understand it.
However, as a non-native speaker myself I find it particularly hard to
believe.https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/sdn_channel_on_linux_deletedSDN Channel on Linux: deleted scenes and commentaryrvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/sdn_channel_on_linux_deleted
Sat, 29 Jul 2006 20:19:56 +0000Sun StudioLast week I had my first ever
<a href="http://developers.sun.com/channel/07_06/">
public exposure</a> of a major kind and now that
I can finally sit back and relax somewhat I guess
it's time to put my first impressions in writing
(before I forget them altogether) and also set the
record straight on things which turned out to be
not quite the way I expected them to.<br><br>
As you could very well imagine for a non-native
English speaker like myself the toughest part
was the interview itself. And even though I have
some experience in lecturing and giving presentations
at various technical and scientific conferences
I don't have a habit of augmenting my slides with
exact words I want to say or otherwise script my speeches.
I usually just give myself a framework of slides and then
I try to improvise within it. Sometimes it works great,
sometimes not, but the crucial difference is -- once
I'm done with my live presentation the only thing I
have to fear is an occasional rotten tomato, in case
of an interview (which is supposed to be available
on-line for at least a couple of weeks) the stakes
are much higher. That said, the pressure wasn't
really severe enough to make me repeat the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosthenes#Speech_training">
Demosthenes's routine</a> but it surely was enough of
a motivation to make me do the proverbial homework at least
a couple of times before the shooting date. I think
it helped a great deal because when I did arrive to
the set on Monday I really knew what I wanted to talk
about and how I wanted to phrase it. I spoke for
about 10-12 minutes and when I was done I actually expected
our producer to call it a wrap. After all, at least
in my opinion, it was the best dozen or so minutes I could
possibly muster anyway. Instead they told me -- too long
and too geeky. We need more entertainment. And thus the
battle for entertainment has begun. We did 5 takes total
and by the end of it I was talking a mile-a-minute and
was really delivering a bunch of sound-bites instead
of talking about things I felt like talking. Luckily
when it was all over they told me that the end result
is going to be a composite of the best segments from all
of the outtakes not just the last one. Now, frankly,
looking at the final product I don't think I have
anything to complain about in a big way. It looks
professional and I have only myself to blame if
there's anything wrong with the presentation or
material, except may be the final speech where they
cut to the host way too early while I still talk
which in my opinion looks a bit silly. That said,
I still feel a bit sad about a couple of points I was
trying to make which didn't make it into the final video.
It would be nice to have an opportunity of making a sort
of "director's cut" based of the raw outtakes and
be able to show it for anybody with an attention span
larger than what producers of the show are used to.
Micheline (my host) is now doing her best trying to
talk our producer into releasing these tapes. But before
that actually happens, here's what I remember from
my favorite part that didn't make it. Enjoy and please
leave your comments on whether you liked the interview
or not. It is really important to me. And I'm going
to explain why in my next post.<br><br>
<I>
Believe it or not, but it all began almost 8 years ago when
I was hired to work for Sun doing C++ compiler. Of course,
given that I had started to tinker with Linux even
earlier -- one of the first things I suggested to my manager
was to port the excellent software which at the time was
known as Sun's Workshop to Linux. I think at the time Linux
kernel was around 1.0 and if my memory serves me right the
answer I got from my manager was : "Linux who?".
Fast forward 5 years and you can find me in Sunny California
doing all sorts of compiler related projects for Sun. What is
different though is Sun's attitude towards Linux. There's an
embracement of it on the deployment side -- there's even some
embracement on the development side because of Sun Studio 9
which had tools available on Linux, but still no compilers.
There's a general interest in Linux, but nobody is ready to
stand up in one of those PowerPoint meetings and claim that
we MUST port compilers to Linux NOW! That said, the approach
I took almost a year and a half ago was a different one.
Together with the two friends of mine (and you know,
three crazy dudes from Russia -- Horsh, Fidor and Vusya --
are a pretty powerful combination when it comes to
skunkworks) we started this porting project pretty much
in our spare time. We had to battle Linux we had to battle
glibc we had to battle gcc but it was great fun and we were
doing something really useful. On top of that in two months
we actually had a C compiler not only capable of bootstrapping
itself but also passing about 80% of the most rigorous
testsuite you could subject a piece of code to. At that point
I just showed up in from of my boss and told him -- its time
to ship it. Much to his credit he was very supportive and
helped me a lot with everything. If it weren't for him
our coming out of the closet during LinuxWorld in
San Francisco probably should have never ever happened.
</I>https://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/sun_studio_compilers_on_linuxSun Studio Compilers on Linux are [almost] 1 year oldrvshttps://blogs.oracle.com/rvs/entry/sun_studio_compilers_on_linux
Fri, 30 Jun 2006 16:28:24 +0000Sun StudioIt looks like summer is Sun's time for doing the right thing. Last summer a year ago we <b><a href="http://www.opensolaris.org">opened</a></b> Solaris to the community and a bit later what had started as a skunworks project of just a couple of guys trying to bring some <b><a href="http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio">software</a></b> they like to the <b><a href="http://www.kernel.org">platform</a></b> they
cherish was finally approved by the management (thanks Don!) to be released to the outside world as well.<br><br>
And thus what is now known as <b><a href="http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio/linux">Sun Studio Compilers for Linux Technology Preview Program</a></b> was born.<br><br>
At the time it was a small project fueled mainly by the enthusiasm of good folks around me (thanks Lisa, Kuldip and <b><a href="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/rchrd">Richard</a></b>) but it was because of you guys reading this that this project
was allowed to morph into a much more respected and supported one called <b><a href="http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/cc/downloads/express.jsp">Sun Studio Express</a></b>. Now its not just about making Sun Studio compilers on Linux available but about changing the way our
organization produces software. And that's a biggie.<br><br>
I guess in this last paragraph I just want to thank everybody who supported us by downloading our stuff, trying it out and <a href="http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/cc/community/index.html">discussing</a></b>
it on forums -- keep doing it! The only reason it all goes out is because of you!<br><br>
<center><H1>Thank YOU!</H1><center>